You have heard and seen the ads. And you probably only have to look as far as your child's school or your own neighborhood to find a local family that is "food insecure" a term used to describe not knowing where your next meal is coming from. All over this country families miss meals due to lack of access to food or economic challenges.

Think back to your younger days. Remember seeing kids eating treats in the summer from the ice cream truck or the candy store. Now imagine being a kid who can't enjoy those simple childhood pleasures much less find breakfast on the kitchen table. You are kidding yourself if you think this doesn't happen in every community in the Hudson Valley. So now that I have you fired up, how can you help?

Fortunately here in the Hudson Valley we have a great group of people making more food available to people who are food insecure. The Food Bank of The Hudson Valley located in Cornwall, N.Y. distributes much need food to individuals, food panties, food kitchen and other organizations all over the the Hudson Valley. The amount of people they reach is staggering and growing.

This past Thursday, the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley received their first of many shipments from Ocean State Job Lot, a 116 store discount retail chain who has started a program called "Three Square Meals" which will distribute nutritious shelf stable food all year long to food agencies throughout the Northeast, New York and New Jersey. There will be a total of 109 tractor trailer truck with food totaling 3,270,000 pounds distributed by the end of 2015.

The first 18 trucks rolled out in a convoy last week. One of them arrived to the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley and now they need you to help sort and pack all of it for distribution around the Hudson Valley. To volunteer for this project and to get more involved regularly with the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley call 845-534-5344 or visit their website. You will feel good and make a difference.

An HVNN interview from earlier this year with the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley.

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